Article May 11, 1929 Issue

The Right Concept of Health

HELEN JOSEPHINE TRIPP

Since both health and disease are usually regarded as physical, mortals have ignorantly believed that health is preserved by strict obedience to certain so-called material laws, and that disease, which is supposed to result from failure to observe these laws, can be destroyed only through material treatment. Christian Science reveals the falsity of this belief, and through every healing it accomplishes affords convincing proof of the mental nature of disease, as well as of true health, derived from God, divine Mind.

If disease were a condition wholly or even partly independent of mental influences, no amount of prayer or right thinking could prevent, alleviate, or cure it. Yet it is solely through spiritual understanding that Christian Scientists attain success in healing. If, on the other hand, health were solely a condition of matter, the physical well-being of mortals would be unaffected by an individual's state of thought. Yet it is generally conceded, even in the medical world, that a serene and optimistic mental state is an aid to health, while a mental state that is impure, disturbed, and pessimistic is liable to induce disease.

On page 415 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes: "Note how thought makes the face pallid. It either retards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale or flushed cheek. In the same way thought increases or diminishes the secretions, the action of the lungs, of the bowels, and of the heart. The muscles, moving quickly or slowly and impelled or palsied by thought, represent the action of all the organs of the human system, including brain and viscera." Christ Jesus, the beloved Way-shower, recognized the mental nature of so-called physical health as well as of disease; but he disregarded all the material theories and systems of his day and depended solely upon the power of God, Spirit, to heal the multitudes that came to him afflicted with all manner of sin and disease.

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"Know thyself!"
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